Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881

Properly speaking, the land belongs to these two: the almighty God and to all his children of men. (Past and Present)

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)

If I were to re-write this book, I would offer a third alternative - the possibility of sanity - Economics would be decentralist and Henry Georgian. "Brave New World: forward "

US Supreme Court Justice sees the light

I find it very difficult to disagree with the principles of Henry George... I believe in the taxation of land values only. Justice Louis Brandeis

Sir Kenneth Jupp

People should pay to society the value of what they receive from society, which is reflected in the value of the land they occupy. To allow that value to be bought and sold between private individuals is morally wrong. Land is, by natural law, the common property of the community. Taken as a whole the number of days annually that the feudal tiller of the soil was obliged to work on his lord's domain is certainly no greater and may well have been considerably fewer than the 128 days that an American is obliged to work for Uncle Sam and his state and local uncles. For his labor, the medieval peasant received, in addition to his protection, a cottage with garden field and access to the village commons. Although this system was far from perfect, it did represent a rough effort to make the tenure of land conditional upon the performance of public and social obligations. It was only when these two elements became severed that the injustices attributed to feudalism became rife. retired Justice of the British High Court 29/10/1997

Tractus Politicus

The fields and the whole soil... should be public property, that is the property of him who holds the right of the commonwealth: and let him let them at a yearly rent to the citizens, whether townsmen or countrymen, and with this exception let them all be free or exempt from every kind of taxation in time of peace. Baruch Spinoza, (1632-1677)

Hon. Clyde Cameron, AO

I am certain that the ALP will once again produce the kind of statesmen who in yesteryears had the intelligence and the integrity to be right (and support the economic philosophy of Henry George)... that will one day make it possible for Christians to truly say, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". Minister for Labor, Whitlam Government: Australia

Brand Whitlock

Henry George's proposition, the single tax, will wait, I fancy, for years, since it is so fundamental, and mankind never attacks fundamental problems until it has exhausted all the superficial ones.

Ambrose Bierce

"LAND, n. A part of the earth's surface, considered as property. The theory that land is property subject to private ownership and control is the foundation of modern society, and is eminently worthy of the superstructure. Carried to its logical conclusion, it means that some have the right to prevent others from living; for the right to own implies the right exclusively to occupy; and in fact laws of trespass are enacted wherever property in land is recognised. It follows that if the whole area of terra firma is owned by A, B, and C there will be no place for D, E, F and G to be born, or, born as trespassers, to exist." The Devil's Dictionary

Truth or Eco-consequences

...Raising much of our revenue from environmental bads makes ecological and economic sense. A revenue neutral shift of our tax base onto resource consumption and away from taxes on income (employment) might make us world leaders in environment management.Mike Young President of Aust & NZ Society for Ecological Economics AFR

Local Government Board Gippsland Review

Five municipalities use the site value of properties as the basis for rating. Four of these- the cities of Moe, Sale and Tralgon and the Borough of Wonthaggi - are predominantly urban in nature. The other municipality in the reference area to use site value is the Shire of Orbost. p.22

David Lloyd-George (1863-1945)

Take the question of over-crowding; the land question in the towns bears on that. It is all very well to produce "Housing of Working Class" bills; they will never be effective until you tackle the taxation of land values.

Rev Dr McGlynn (1837-1900)

I believe I am not guilty of any profanation of the Sacred Scriptures when I say, in all reverence: There was a man sent by God and his name was Henry George. (Church)

Social Statistics- The Right to Land 1851

Chapter 9: The world is God's bequest to mankind. All men are joint heirs to it... Our civilisation is only partial... co-heirship of all men to the soil is consistent with the highest civilisation... and... equity sternly commands it to be done. Equity, therefore, does not permit property in land. For if one portion of the earth's surface may justly become the possession of an individual, and may be held by him for his sole use and benefit, as a thing to which he has an exclusive right, then other portions of the earth's surface may be so held; and eventually the whole of the earth's surface may be so held; and our planet may thus lapse altogether into private hands. Observe now the dilemma to which this leads. Supposing the entire habitable globe to be so inclosed it follows that if the landowners have a valid right to its surface, all who are not landowners have not right at all to its surface. Hence, such can exist on the earth by sufferance only. They are all trespassers. Save by the permission of the lords of the soil, they can have no room for the soles of their feet. Nay, should the others think fit to deny them a resting-place these landless men might equitably be expelled from the earth altogether. If, then, the assumption that land can be held as property, involves that the whole globe may become the private domain of a part of its inhabitants; and if, by consequence, the rest of its inhabitants can then exercise their faculties-can then exist even-only by consent of the landowners; it is manifest, that an exclusive possession of the soil necessitates an infringement of the law of equal freedom. For, men who cannot "live and move and have their being: without the leave of others cannot be equally free with those others. Herbert Spencer, (1820-1903)

Manhattan

Overall vacancy rates downtown have risen steadily since the mid 80’s while rents have tumbled: In the core financial area, 27 per cent of all the offices are empty (buildings are taxed). The self-help is coming in the form of what is appositely termed a Business Improvement District. Set up by Lower Manhattan Property Owners, the scheme involves a self-imposed, voluntary tax of $US9 a sq foot (On site value). The Age

John Locke (1632-1704)

Some Considerations of the Lowering of Interest: It is in vain in a country whose great fund is land to hope to lay the public charge on anything else; there at last it will terminate. The merchant (do what you can) will not bear it, the labourer cannot, and therefore the landholder must: and whether he were best to do it by laying it directly where it will at last settle, or by letting it come to him by the sinking of his rents, which when they are fallen, everyone knows they are not easily raised again, let him consider. Whenever, in any country, the proprietor ceases to be the improver, political economy has nothing to say in defence of landed property. When the "sacredness" of property is talked of, it should be remembered that any such sacredness does not belong in the same degree to landed property. When land is not intended to be cultivated, no good reason can in general be given for its private property at all. "Principles of Political Economy" The earth belongs in usufruct to the living and is given as a common stock for men to live and Labor on. ...all the learned of his [Jesus'] country, entrenched in its power and riches were opposed to him, lest his labours should undermine their advantages.

Cannot be transferred

The power of transferring a tax from the person who actually pays it to some other person varies with the object taxed. A tax on rents cannot be transferred. A tax on commodities is always transferred to the consumer. - Thorold Rogers, Political Economy, 2nd edition, Chapter 21, page 285.

City of Camberwell (Now Boroondara ) Amalgamation Public Meeting

Motion.  This meeting recognises the advantages of SV rating as the basis to which Rates should be levied.  We condemn the Office of Local Government in its advocation of NAV rating in the interim, so that CIV rating can be introduced under the guise of Council Amalgamation. Passed Overwhelmingly.(1000+)

Adam Smith, (1723-1790)

Taxation should (i) bear as lightly as possible on industry (ii) bear equally on all (iii) be easy to assess and collect (iv) be paid by the person on whom it is levied (v) be certain in amount Though the landlord is in all cases the real contributor, the tax is commonly advanced by the tenants, to whom the landlord is obliged to allow it in the payment of the rent. Wealth of Nations, Book 5, Chapter 2 Ground rents are a species of revenue which the owner, in many cases, enjoys without any care or attention of his own. Ground rents are, therefore, perhaps a species of revenue which can best bear to have a peculiar tax imposed upon them. As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed. There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.

William Pitt (1759-1806)

"My Lords and Gentlemen: A direct tax of 7% would be a dangerous experiment and one likely to incite revolt. But there is a method whereby you can tax the last rag from the back and the last bite from the mouth without causing a murmur against high taxes, and that is to tax a large number of articles of daily use so indirectly that the people will pay without knowing it. Their grumblings will then be of hard times, but they will not know that the hard times are caused by taxation." First Chancellor of the Exchequer 1790

Aristotle 384-322 B.C

...The whole land (of Attica) was in the hands of a few, and if the cultivators did not pay their rents, they became subject to bondage...

Thomas Paine (1737-1809):

Men did not make the earth... It is the value of the improvements only, and not the earth itself, that is individual property... Every proprietor owes to the community a ground rent for the land which he holds.

Pope Gregory the Great (540-604 AD)

"Cura Pastoralis": Those who make private property of the gift of God pretend in vain to be innocent. For, in thus retaining the subsistence of the poor, they are the murderers of those who die every day for the want of it.

Lloyd George

To prove a legal title to land one must trace it back to the man who stole it.

Pope Pius XII

Speech to delegates of the National Confederation of Farm Owner-Operators in Rome, 1946, described land that has become; “...the object...of cold exploitation...it is made to produce only for speculation...while the farmer burdening himself with debts, slowly approaches ruin; while the national economy becomes exhausted from paying high prices...This perversion of private rural property is seriously harmful...” At the First International Catholic Congress on Problems of Rural Life, at Castle Gandolfo and Rome, 1951, delegates and participants from 20 countries heard Pope Pius XII include the following statements in his Declaration of Conclusions: “Land...is limited in extension. It follows that the juridical phenomenon of land ownership requires special regulation so that it may accomplish fully its public and private, economic and social function!” “...In many countries a large part of the land is not operated directly by landowners...” “...Immense domains remain uncultivated, side by side with a population without land which wallows in misery...” ...”Large scale land ownership ceases to accomplish its social function whenever it leads to a rigid monopoly in favour of a few people, or to insufficient utilisation of soil productivity, or also to pauperism due to exploitation of labour, or due to demographic pressure which in turn leads to a strong demand for land.” The Second International Catholic Congress on Problems of Rural Life was held in Columbia under the patronage of the Apostolic Nuncio and subsequent Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Extraordinary Affairs at the Archbishop of Bogota and Primate of Columbia. Delegates and participants from 23 countries came up with the following declarations in their Statement of Conclusions: “There are in the world today millions of men who, because of a lack of economic opportunities...are unable to use their God-given talents to contribute to the common welfare...There exist in other lands immense tracts of land, rich in natural resources, uninhabited or sparsely populated...Inview of unequal geographic distribution of men, capital and natural resources, society should be organised to facilitate the bringing together of these three elements which make for economic prosperity.” “It is essential that Catholics, following the exhortations of His Holiness, Pope Pius XII, exhibit zeal in bringing about a realisation of practical works which have for their end a remedy to these grave problems” “The Latin American Congress on Problems of Rural Life affirms its view that landed property has a social function. The land is, in effect, destined by its Creator to satisfy the needs of all men. Hence, it is necessary that all have ready access to the ownership of rural property...One of the major defects of the agrarian structure of Latin America is the prevalence of large landed estates which withdraw land from the small proprietor, often hindering adequate resource utilisation, and not infrequently employing the rural worker merely as an instrument of production.” “The natural resources of the world must be fully developed and conserved for the benefit of all men, so that sickness, poverty, ignorance and misery may be eliminated or at least minimised.” “A sympathetic and co-operative attitude should be taken toward the efforts of governments and international bodies which promote proper use of the land.” “It is very important to teach and to preach the moral obligation of using natural resources properly.” “Accordingly, it is of utmost importance that priests receive adequate training in these matters by means of theoretical and practical courses conducted in seminaries in cooperation with national and international technical bodies.” “There should be created diocesan and national agencies ...entrusted with the responsibility of bringing Catholic rural leaders into contact with governmental and international agencies, and to further the proper development and use of natural resources and the training of technical personnel... (who) have adequate remuneration for their services, and remain outside the area of party politics.” Most recently, the 1959 Pastoral by the Bishops published under the title “Fundamental Human Rights” contains the following section on the “Right of Private Ownership of Property.” “The right to acquire property in private ownership is something that is useful and even necessary for an orderly human life, and in this regarded as a human right of private ownership, at least of some goods, man would be reduced to the condition of the jungle, where the beast of prey has to defend its bone while it is gnawing at it. Pope Leo XIII taught this doctrine of the natural right to private property in his immortal Encyclical Rerum Novarum;- “The practice of all ages has considered the principle of private ownership as pre-eminently in conformity with human nature, and as conducing in the most unmistakable manner to the peace and tranquillity of human existence,” Pope Pius XII taught the same doctrine, but he placed the emphasis on the dignity of the human person, which demands the use of this world’s goods as a natural foundation of its physical and spiritual life. But private ownership is not an “absolute” right. In case of utter need, for example, if a man were starting, he would be justified in ignoring the private ownership of food which he here and now needs for human life. Human life is more precious than material foods.”

Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam (New York)

Regarding self-assessment of the value of land for the tax he imposed upon land speculation (15/1/1658): It is left to the device of the Burgomasters either to take the lot at the owner's price for account of the City and sell it at this price to anyone who desires to build conformably to the ordinance, or else to leave it to the owner until it is built upon by him or others, when this charge, for good reason laid upon unimproved land, shall be taken off. Peter Stuyvesant, (1592-1672)

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873):

Landlords grow richer in their sleep without working, risking or economising. The increase in the value of land, arising as it does from the efforts of an entire community, should belong to the community and not to the individual who might hold title. “A tax on rent falls wholly on the landlord. There are no means by which he can shift the burden upon anyone else.... A tax on rent, therefore, has no effect other than its obvious one. It merely takes so much from the landlord and transfers it to the State.” Principles of Political Economy, Book 5, Chapter 3, Section 2.

Richard Cobden 1804-1865

You who shall liberate the land will do more for your country than we have done in the liberation of its trade.

Hon. Sir Allen Fairhall, (Australian Liberal Party Politician)

I have no doubt that present political differences would be vastly reduced and the progress of the nation towards social harmony with prosperity in equity would be hastened if the basic truths of the Georgist philosophy could be understood, accepted and applied.

Mark Twain

Give me the private ownership of all the land, and I will move the earth? No; but I will do more. I will undertake to make slaves of all the human beings on the face of it. , Archimedes (Samuel Langhorne Clemens 1835-1910)

Could not be shifted

A tax on rent would affect rent only: it would fall only on landlords, and could not be shifted. The landlord could not raise the rent, because he would have unaltered the difference between the produce obtained from the least productive land in cultivation and that obtained from land of every other quality. David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Chapter 10, Sect 62.

James Madison

“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes...known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. ... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”— Political Observations, 1795

Editorial Herald Sun

"What is at issue here is the responsibility of councils to their ratpayers, the responsibility that demands they properly consider the effects including the potential effects of every decision."

Walter Burley Griffin

Behind every radical movement you will find Single Taxers. Woodrow Wilson is surrounded by them. designer of Canberra, and member of Chicago Single Tax Club "Progress" 1/9/1913

Justice Louis Brandeis

I find it very difficult to disagree with the principles of Henry George... I believe in the taxation of land values only. US Supreme Court

US steel magnate

The most comfortable, but also the the most unproductive, way for a capitalist to increase his fortune is to put all his monies in sites and await that point in time when a society, hungering for land, has to pay his price. Andrew Carnegie, (1835-1919)

Norman S. Casserley

...It is to be noted that the words “property” and “ownership” wherever they occur, apply solely to goods, and that there is never room for any association with a meaning that might extend them so as to include land. This, of course, is as it should be, for it has never been possible, in logic, to treat land, the source of all wealth, as wealth itself. Given the current state of global ecologies and economies, is it not time to apply the solution advocated by these people, instead of accepting political prevarication? World economies and the global environment currently cry out more than ever for the need to change discredited revenue systems: Modern Catholic Sources

Count Leo Tolstoy, (1828-1910)

Quite difficult matters can be explained even to a slow-witted man, if only he has not already adopted a wrong opinion about them; but the simplest things cannot be made clear even to a very intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he already knows, and knows indubitably, the truth of the matter under consideration. The only thing now that would pacify the people now is the introduction of the Land Value Taxation system of Henry George. The land is common to all; all have the same right to it. Solving the land question means the solving of all social questions... Possession of land by people who do not use it is immoral - just like the possession of slaves. The earth cannot be anyone's property. I sit on a man's back choking him and making him carry me and assure myself and others that I am sorry for him and wish to lighten his load by all possible means - except by getting off his back. Of all indispensable alterations of the forms of social life there is in the life of the world one which is most ripe... The method of solving the land problem has been elaborated by Henry George to a degree of perfection that under the existing state organisation and compulsory taxation, it is impossible to invent any better, more just, practical and peaceful solution. People do not argue with the teachings of George, they simply do not know it... He who becomes acquainted with it cannot but agree. People do not argue with the teachings of George, they simply do not know it... He who becomes acquainted with it cannot but agree. “ It's the ownership of land. The peasants never recognised the private ownership of land. They say that land belongs to God.....” In an interview with a New York Times reporter, July 20 1908. (Of course its the title to land which is owned, not its annual rental value)

Chamber of Commerce calculates suppression in Coburg

Using 1992 as a basis for comparison between SV and CIV rating the incremental cost to business premises in Coburg has been calculated at $452,370 per annum, which when divided among the number of business ratepayers results in a substantial increase in rates. Sam Ganchi President. The Courier

Land is not a thing of human production

The way taxes raise prices is by increasing the cost of production and checking supply. But land is not a thing of human production, and taxes upon rent cannot check supply. Therefore, though a tax upon rent compels owners to pay more, it gives them no power to obtain more for the use of their land, as it in no way tends to reduce the supply of land. On the contrary, by compelling those who hold land for speculation to sell or let for what they can get, a tax on land values tends to increase the competition between owners, and thus to reduce the price of land. Henry George, Progress and Poverty, Book 8, Chapter 3.

Voltaire (1694-1778)

The fruits of the earth are a common heritage for all, to which each man has an equal right.

Roads to Freedom

“If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence.” It is necessary that there should be rent, but that it should be paid to the state or to some body which performs public services. Bertrand Russell, (1872-1970)

Sir Ronald East, Australian engineer

We have gone wrong on the land question, and everything else has gone wrong automatically. I believe that there is no greater or more urgent task of leadership for the engineer than to help the community to a clear understanding of the simple economic laws that govern the distribution of benefits from human activities.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

Whenever there are in any country uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate their natural right.

Paul Zane Pilzer

I answer some of the blind statements of Paul Zane Pilzer of City Bank, in his book Unlimited Wealth "that there is something much more serious at this point in economic history, the one thing virtually all economists in the world will agree on today is. None of them know the answer!,..We don’t know what makes our economy grow.!" ANSWER: Open letter to the President of the Commonwealth of Independent States. (Posted on blog) 30 Leading U.S. Economists are Signatories in 1990 to a joint statement which contains:- “A public revenue system should strive to collect as much of the rent of land as possible. The component of land value that arises from community growth and provision of services is the most sensible source of revenue for financing public services that raise the rental value of surrounding land. "What we see is that we are totally without a working theory to explain what we see in every day life...People don’t react well when they’re told something different..." ANSWER: The taxation system must be exposed as being harmful to societal growth, not only because it cuts down the purchasing power of the great mass of the people, but because it completely fails to deal with capitalised land price as the major hurdle to public and private expansion. (Keynesian economics also ignores this completely.) "Deficits, It is not in anyway affecting our economic output or behaviour." ANSWER: Taxing labour to service deficits is charging a person for the privilege of earning a living! I can’t think of a better way of raising the unemployment rate. "There is no panacea out there !." ANSWER: I’m very suspicious of people who take that point of view, I think it’s a substitute for having constructive ideas themselves. The word panacea is a scare word, it is used to intimidate people who have a solution, I refuse to be intimated. To me the wonderful thing about Site Value Rating is the way it reconciles a number of ideas that in other philosophies and in the dominant philosophy today are considered to be incompatible. For example we can have a progressive tax system and we can have free markets and we can have incentives at the same time, these are not only compatible these are essential to each other.

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860)

“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident.”— German philosopher

Christopher Hollis MP

“There is no reason why a Catholic should not be a follower of George or agree with his practical proposal...Henry George did not in the least mean that the land should be administered by the State in a Socialist system...So far from this principle destroying the private possession of land, it would on the contrary cause private possession to be much more widely diffused than at present...It may well be argued that Henry George’s distinction between possessor and owner is little more than the re-establishment of the old Catholic land system...” English National Catholic Newspaper: Men & Movements 1941/5/17

Problems of Today (1908)

In all other English speaking countries, the people work the land; in Britain the landlords work the people. When the interests of the masses of the people require change in land tenure, the few owners can justly be required to forego their preferences, or submit to increased taxation if they decide to enjoy privileges injurious to the community as a whole. The greatest amount of wealth created in any branch comes from enhanced values of real property. The obvious creator of this wealth is not the individual, but the community. No other form of wealth should contribute to the nation so generously. The most comfortable, but also the the most unproductive, way for a capitalist to increase his fortune is to put all his monies in sites and await that point in time when a society, hungering for land, has to pay his price. Andrew Carnegie, (1835-1919) US steel magnate

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

You cannot make the poor rich by making the rich poor. The land, the earth that God gave to man for his home, his sustenance and support, should never be the possession of any man, corporation, society or unfriendly government, any more than the air or water - if as much. An individual or enterprise requiring land should hold no more in their own right than is needed for their home and sustenance, and never more than they have in actual use in the prudent management of their legitimate business, and this much should not be permitted when it creates an exclusive monopoly. All that is not so used should be held for the free use of every family to make homesteads, and to hold them so long as they are occupied. A reform like this will be worked out some time in the future. An individual or company should never hold more land than they have in actual use. “I destroy my enemy by making him my friend”

Albert Einstein 1879-1955

Men like Henry George are rare unfortunately. One cannot imagine a more beautiful combination of intellectual keenness, artistic form, and fervent love of justice.

Andrew Carnegie 1835-1919

The most comfortable, but also the the most unproductive, way for a capitalist to increase his fortune is to put all his monies in sites and await that point in time when a society, hungering for land, has to pay his price.

Henry Thomas Buckle: 1821-1862

The landlords are perhaps the only large class whose interests are diametrically opposed to those of the people.

James Buchanan: 1986

The landowner who withdraws land from productive use to a purely private use should be required to pay higher, not lower, taxes.

Dr Edgar Cullen

There are two schools of thought other than Anarchy - Socialism and the Georgian school. Socialism is complex, difficult, burdensome, and caters to the law of inertia. Georgianism is simple, natural, and easily applied, and caters to the law of individual effort, realising there should be no unearned wealth or undeserved poverty. Melbourne doctor (1928)

Papal Ablegate Monsignor Satolli

Together with four Professors at the Catholic University from a Joint Statement “There is nothing in the land philosophy preached by Dr McGlynn which is contrary to the Christian faith for Catholic doctrine” Journal: Progress Dec 1959-Jan 1960

James Buchanan, (1986)

The landowner who withdraws land from productive use to a purely private use should be required to pay higher, not lower, taxes.

Helen Keller (1880-1968)

Who reads will find in Henry George's philosophy a rare beauty and power of inspiration, and a splendid faith in the essential nobility of human nature.

Hon. Clyde Cameron, AM, former ALP MP

“Rent as Revenue tells us why the founders of the Labor Party held such a deep commitment to collecting the economic rent of land rather than financing the cost of government by direct and indirect taxation. No one has ever explained how such a basic policy commitment was mysteriously dropped from Labor’s platform. No decision to do so was ever carried by the party’s Federal Conference. "Australia's unions must change direction if they are to achieve lasting benefits for their members. They must screem blue murder at Governments. Demand a reduction in taxation coupled with an increase of the rent of the land for public revenue only in that way shall the Australian workforce achieve the standard of living it deserves". (Rent as Revenue: Book Review) "It is better to pay a small amount of land tax (rent) on your block of land than to pay a large amount in income tax and indirect taxation. I am certain that the ALP will once again produce the kind of statesmen who in yesteryears had the intelligence and the integrity to be right (and support the economic philosophy of Henry George)... that will one day make it possible for Christians to truly say, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". (Speech extract)

Alfred Deakin, Australian Prime Minister

The whole of the people have the right to the ownership of land and the right to share in the value of land itself, though not to share in the fruits of land which properly belong to the individuals by whose labour they are produced.

Samuel Gompers (1850-1924)

I believe in Land Value Taxation. I count it a great privilege to have been a friend of Henry George. first president American Federation of Labor:

The Autobiography of Sam Houston

The great misfortune is that a notion obtains with those in power that the world, or the people, require more governing than is necessary. To govern well is a great science, but no country is ever improved by too much governing. Govern wisely and as little as possible! Most men think when they are elevated to position that it requires an effort to discharge their duties and they leave common sense out of the question.

Plato (427-347BC)

When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust man less on the same amount of income.

Clarence Darrow, US lawyer:

Henry George was one of the real prophets of the world; one of the seers of the world... His was a wonderful mind; he saw a question from every side. The "single tax" is so simple, so fundamental, and so easy to carry into effect that I have no doubt that it will be about the last land reform the world will ever get. People in this world are not often logical.

Herbert Simon, (1978):

Assuming that a tax increase is necessary, it is clearly preferable to impose the additional cost on land by increasing the land tax, rather than to increase the wage tax the two alternatives open to the City (of Pittsburgh). It is the use and occupancy of property that creates the need for municipal services that appear as the largest item in the budget fire and police protection, waste removal, and public works. The average increase in tax bills of the city residents will be about twice as great with wage tax increase than with a land tax increase.

Henry Ford 1863-1947

We ought to tax all idle land the way Henry George said - tax it heavily so that its owners would have to make it productive.

Open letter to President Mikhail Gorbachev

On the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States:-“A public revenue system should strive to collect as much of the rent of land as possible. The component of land value that arises from community growth and provision of services is the most sensible source of revenue for financing public services that raise the rental value of surrounding land 30 Leading USA Economist Signatories 1990 President, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics The movement of the Soviet Union to a market economy will greatly enhance the prosperity of your citizens. Your economists have learned much from the experience of nations with economies based in varying degrees on free markets. Your plans for freely convertible currency, free trade, and enterprises undertaken and managed by individuals who receive the profit or bear the losses that result from their decisions are all highly commendable. But there is a danger that you will adopt features of our economies that keep us from being as prosperous as we might be. In particular, there is a danger that you may follow us in allowing most of the rent of land to be collected privately. It is important that the rent of land be retained as a source of government revenue. While the governments of developed nations with market economies collect some of the rent of land in taxes, they do not collect nearly as much as they could, and they therefore make unnecessary great use of taxes that impede their economies-taxes on such things as incomes, sales and the values of capital. Social collection of the rent of land and natural resources serves three purposes. First, it guarantees that no one dispossesses fellow citizens by obtaining a disproportionate share of what nature provides for humanity. Second, it provides revenue with which governments can pay for socially valuable activities without discouraging capital formation or work effort, or interfering in other ways with the efficient allocation or resources. Third, the resulting revenue permits utility and other services that have marked economies of scale or density to be priced at levels conducive to their efficient use. The rental value of land arises from three sources. The first is the inherent natural productivity of land, combined with the fact that land is limited. The second source of land value is the growth of communities; the third is the provision of public services. All citizens have equal claims on the component of land value that arises from nature. The component of land value that arises from community growth and provision of services is the most sensible source of revenue for financing public services that raise the rental value of surrounding land. These services include roads, urban transit networks, parks, and public utility networks for such services as electricity, telephones, water and sewers. A public revenue system should strive to collect as much of the rent of land as possible, allocating the part of rent derived from nature to all citizens equally, and the part derived from public services to the governmental units that provide those services. When governments collect the increase in land value that results from the provision of services, they are able to offer services at prices that represent the marginal social cost of these services, promoting efficient use of the services and enhancing the rental value of the land where the services are available. Government agencies that use land should be charged the same rentals as others for the land they use, or services will not be adequately financed and agencies will not have adequate incentive or guidance for economising on their use of land. Some economists might be tempted to suggest that the rent can be collected publicly simply by selling land outright at auction. There are a number of reasons why this is not a good idea. First, there is so much land to be turned over to private management that any effort to dispose of all of it in a short period would result in an extreme depression in prices offered. Second, some persons who could make excellent use of land would be unable to raise money for the purchase price. Collecting rent annually provides access to land for persons with limited access to credit. Third, subsequent resale of land would enable speculators to make large profits unrelated to any productive services they offer, resulting in needless inequity and dissatisfaction. Fourth, concern about future political conditions would tend to depress offers. Collecting rent annually permits the citizens of future years to capture the benefits of good future public policies. Fifth, because investors tend to be averse to risk, general uncertainty about the future will tend to depress offers. This risk aversion is sidestepped by allowing future rental payments to be determined by future conditions. Finally, the future rent of land can more justly be claimed by future generations than by today’s citizens. Requiring annual payments from the users of land allows each year’s population to claim that year’s rent. While the proceeds of sales could be invested for the benefit of future generations, not collecting the money in advance guarantees the heritage of the future against political excesses. A balance should be kept between allowing the managers of property to retain value derived from their own efforts to maintain and improve property, and securing for public use the naturally inherent and socially created value of land. Users of land should not be allowed to acquire rights of indefinite duration for single payments. For efficiency, for adequate revenue and for justice, every user of land should be required to make an annual payment to the local government, equal to the current rental value of the land that he or she prevents others from using. Signed Nicolaus Tideman, Professor of Economics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. William Vickery, President for 1992, American Economic Association. Mason Gafney, Professor of Economics, University of California, . Lowell Harris,Professor Emeritus of Economics Columbia University. Jacques Thisse, Professor of Economics, Centre for Operational Research and Econometrics, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium Charles Goetz, Joseph M. Hartfield Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law. Gene Wunerlich, Senior Agricultural Economist, Department of Agriculture Daniel R. Fusfeld, Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Michigan. Carl Kaysen, Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Elizabeth Clayton, Professor of Economics, University of Missouri at St. Louis. Robert Dorfman, Professor Emeritu s of Political Economy, Harvard University. Tibor Scitossky, Emeritus Eberle Professor of Economics, Stanford University. Susan Rose-Ackerman, Eli Professor of Law and Political Economy. Yale Law School. James Tobin*, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Economics, Yale University Richard Musgrave, Professor Emeritus of Political Economy, Harvard University Franco Modigliani*, Professor Emeritus of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Warren J. Samuals, Professor of Economics, Michigan State University Guy Orcutt,Professor Emeritus of Economics, Yale University Eugine Smolenski, Dean of the School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkly Oliver Oldman, Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard University. Zvi Griliches, Professor of Economics Harvard University William Baumol,Professor of Economics Princeton, University Gustav Ranis,Frank Altschul Professor of International Economics, Yale University John Helliwell, Professor Economics University of British Columbia Giulio Pontecorvo, Professor of Economics and Banking, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University. Robert Solow*, Institute Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Harvey Levin, Augustus B. Weller, Professor of Economics, Hofstra University

Mayor’s Special Committee on Housing in New York.

“The seemingly unstoppable spread of slums has confronted the great cities of the nation with chronic financial crises... The $2 billion public housing program has not made any appreciable dent in the number of slum dwellings... No amount of code enforcement until and unless the profit is taken out of slums by taxation. Architectural Forum, November, 1965

The Profitable Slums

...these tax policies make slums the most profitable of all housing investments; they often make it more profitable to let property decay than to keep it up or improve it; they often make it more profitable to misuse or under-use land than to put land to its optimum use; they give speculation in vacant land such preferential tax treatment that they set apart from the market action of supply and demand. ..ours is a tax-activated, tax-accelerated, tax-directed, tax-dominated economy. Every business decision has to be checked against its tax consequences; and when property owners check the tax consequences of using land better versus using land worse, or spending money for improvements versus letting properties decay, they find, too often, that our tax system penalises what is socially desirable and susidizes what is socially undesirable. ...here is the two-fold way our tax system harness the profit motive backwards in the building industry: The first way is that our system taxes the value of unimproved or under improved land so lightly that land owners are under no pressure to sell until they are offered many times what their land is worth; and so lightly that there is no tax restraint on its price. So the price of our land- which reflects the capitalised difference between the rent the land can be expected to earn and the taxes it must expect to pay has soared clear through the roof. The home builders have voted three to one that this land price inflation is their number one problem in trying to meet this country’s need for better housing. The second way our tax system operates against our best interests ins the manner in which it taxes improvements. Our system taxes improvements so heavily that it makes slums the most profitable of all real estate investments. And so our slums are still spreading faster than urban redevelopment can clear them out. Architectural Forum, November, 1965

The Use of Land in Cities

Charles Abrams Scientific America September 1965. ...This is strictly free-enterprise, profit-motive tool, so perhaps I had better start off by loudly affirming my personal faith in free enterprise and the profit motive. By and large don’t think there can be any substitute for free enterprise and the profit motive when it comes to satisfying a multiplicity of similar but not identical human needs. And, specifically there can be no substitute for free enterprise in meeting a problem as unbelievably complicated as the problem of urban development. When we find a notorious example where free enterprise and the profit motive have failed to meet a complex human need, I believe very strongly that-before we decide to ask the Government to step in and use tax dollars to do the job- we should first try to find out why private enterprise failed in this particular case and see if we cannot eliminate the cause of its failure. Comment So when governments subsidize the particular ownership of one site by granting differential charges, exemptions, minimum rates to others, the effect of which is to change the behavior of the whole rate paying community in ways. That they do not monitor.

James Tobin, (1981):

I think in principle it's a good idea to tax unimproved land, and particularly capital gains (windfalls) on it. Theory says we should try to tax items with zero or low elasticity, and those include sites.

Man’s Relation To the Land

A statement of principles signed by some 75 of America’s Catholic, Protestant and Jewish leaders, we find the following: “All human beings possess a direct natural right to have access to created natural resources...The land is God’s greatest gift to mankind...Land is a very special kind of property...The land is not to be a source of benefit to a favoured few...The worker on the land and his family possess the first right to the fruits of their toil...Reform the system of taxing land and improvements so as to facilitate access to natural resources, security of tenure and proper land use...” Among the top 20 Catholic leaders who signed this declaration were: Msgr. Rev. E. V. O’Hara, D.D., Bishop of Kansas City, Founder of National Catholic Rural Life Conference; Rt. Rev. Professor W.J. McDonald, Catholic University of America; Professor W.J. McDonald. Catholic University of America; Rev. L.R. Ward, C.S.C.., Notre Dame University; Dr. T.J. Arcemaux, South Western Louisiana Institute; Rev.J.C. Rawe, S.J., Author & Teacher, Ridge, Maryland; Rev. M.E. Schirber, O.S.B., Dean, St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota; Edward Skillin, Jr. Editor “Commonweal”; Rev. J. La Farge, S.J., Editor, “America”; Most Rev.W.A. Griffin, D.D., Bishop of Trenton; Most Rev.W.T. Mulloy, D.D., Bishop of Covington; Most Rev. C.D. White, D.D., Bishop of Spokane; Very Rev. H. Lerschen, Regional Director of Rural Life, Rayne, Louisiana; Rt Rev Msgr.J. O’Grady, National Conference of Catholic Charities; Rev. G.C.Higgins, National Catholic Welfare Conference; Rev. P.T. Quinlan, Regional Director of Rural Life, Brookfield Centre, Connecticut; Rev. A.J. Adams, S.J.; Rev. C. Phillips, St. Mary’s Church, Oakland, California;Rev. J.V. Urbain, Pastor, Millville, Ohio. Journal Progress Dec 1959-Jan 1960

Milton Friedman, (1976)

"I share your view that taxes would best be placed on the land, and not on improvements."

Andrew Jackson

veto of the Bank Bill 10 July 1832 Every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add... artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society - the farmers, mechanics, and labourers - who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favours to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their government.

Philadelphia's first tax law 30/1/1693

"Put to the vote: as many are of the opinion that a public tax upon the land ought to be raised to defray the public charge, say 'yea'. - Carried in the affirmative, none dissenting."

Paul Samuelson, (1970)

Pure land rent is in the nature of a "surplus" which can be taxed heavily without distorting production incentives or efficiency. A land value tax can be called "the useful tax on measured land surplus".

Commentaries

The earth, therefore, and all things therein, are the general property of all mankind, from the immediate gift of the creator. ...there is no foundation in nature or in natural law why a set of words upon parchment should convey the dominion of land. William Blackstone, (1723-1780)

Differentials Debate

Concerned at the expense of the power granted to local govt under clause 161 (2), which reads A differential rate which is higher or lower for some land in the municipal district than for other land may be declared on the basis of any criterea specified by the Council in the rate. That is carte blanche, open sesame. There can be differential rates on any criteria, and it was in that basis that the National Party objected most strenously to the powers contained in clause 161. We did so on the grounds that no one was in a position to protect ratepayers against potential abuse. It is clear that, in relation to minimum rates- which will, incidentally, de deleted by the Bill-some municipalities have been obtaining more than half of their entire rate revenue under the guise of minimum rates. The National Party wants to ensure that we at least restrain the potential for that power to be abused.....the MAV and the municipalities should be invited to define the classes or basis upon which the rates were levied, and explain the differentiation. It seemed a fair enough compromise, that they should be defined and put into the Bill, enabling everybody to know where we stand in relation to those defined categories.....yet under section 161 it was being advocated that the door be opened to the creation of additional minority groups. It was in that basis that we objected to the provision most strenously I place on the record now the fact that the National Party would profer that the definition of rates under which differentials are to be struck should be declared and identified in the legislation. ...I anticipate that enormous problems will surface if the Bill is passed and that open-ended differential rates will come back to haunt us. Roger Hallam Min. Local Government Western Province., Aug 3 1988

Winston Churchill 1874-1965

It is quite true that the land monopoly is not the only monopoly which exists, but it is by far the greatest of monopolies - it is a perpetual monopoly, and it is the mother of all other forms of monopoly. Nothing is more amusing than to watch the efforts of our monopolist opponents to prove that other forms of property and increment are exactly the same, and are similar in all respects to the unearned increment in land. I have made speeches by the yard on the subject of land value taxation, and you know what a supporter I am of that policy.

Henry George (1839-1897): Protection or Free Trade

Introduction: A tax on land values is of all taxes that which best fulfils every requirement of a perfect tax. As land cannot be hidden or carried off, a tax on land values can be assessed with more certainty and can be collected with greater ease and less expense than any other tax, while it does not in the slightest degree check production or lessen its incentive. It is, in fact, a tax only in form, being in nature a rent - a taking for the use of the community of a value that arises not from individual exertion but from the growth of the community. For it is not anything that the individual owner or user does that gives value to land. The value that he creates is a value that attaches to improvements. This, being the the result of individual exertion, properly belongs to the individual, and cannot be taxed without lessening the incentive to production. But the value that attaches to land itself is a value arising from the growth of the community and increasing with social growth. It therefore properly belongs to the community, and can be taken to the last penny without in the slightest degree lessening the incentive to production. For justice to be done between men it is not necessary for the State to take the land; it is only necessary to take its rent. Our primary social adjustment is a denial of justice. In allowing one man to own the land on which and from which other men must live, we have made them his bondsmen in a degree which increases as material progress goes on.

Franco Modigliani (1985):

It is important that rent of land be retained as a source of government revenue. Some persons who could make excellent use of land would be unable to raise money for the purchase price. Collecting rent annually provides access to land for persons with limited access to credit.

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882

Whilst another man has no land, my title to mine, and your title to yours, is at once vitiated.

Germany 1919

Germany 1919 It was the landed aristocracy that put Hitler into power. It is interesting to note that before World War II, German agricultural land was owned primarily by the Junkers, the old military nobility, who considered themselves to be inherently superior to the lower classes. It was not uncommon to observe these lower classes bowing and removing their hats when the nobles rode by. Bruno Heilwigs: 'Why the German Republic fell.' It makes for depressing reading. Heilwig tells how fortunes were made by the well connected through the ownership of just a few square metres of dirt in large German cities. In Berlin alone, land prices escalated over 700% in less than six years. Under Hitler, the original Nazi program called for a complete overhaul of this antiquated agricultural system, a program with mass appeal to lower class resentment at the power of the nobility. Indeed, at Munich on March 6th 1930, Hitler, to thundering “sieg Heils”, proclaimed; “The land of Germany, acquired and defended by the German nation, must be at the service of the German nation as a means of livelihood. Those who occupy the land must administer it in this sense. German land must not become an object of financing speculation, nor may it provide an unearned income for its owner. It may only be acquired by him, who is prepared to cultivate it himself. Therefore the state has a right of pre-emption on every sale of land.” In 1933, Hitler cut a deal with the Junkers and their Chancellor at the time, General Von Hindenburg. Or was the deal the other way around ? It’s irrelevant anyway since what happened is history. In uniting with the Nazis, and appointing Hitler as Chancellor, the Nazi party shelved the land reform programs, extended subsidies to big land owners and stopped an investigation of a tax scandal involving Hindenburg himself. Hitler took full advantage of the opportunities as they presented themselves to firmly establish his ascension to power. Vlad Zhirinovsky - 1995

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)

The burden of taxation should be so shifted as to put the weight upon the unearned rise in value of land itself, rather than upon the improvements. There is no subjugation so potent as that which leaves the appearance of freedom.

Two alternatives for Pitsburgh

Assuming that a tax increase is necessary, it is clearly preferable to impose the additional cost on land by increasing the land tax, rather than to increase the wage tax ˇ the two alternatives open to the City (of Pittsburgh). It is the use and occupancy of property that creates the need for municipal services that appear as the largest item in the budget ˇ fire and police protection, waste removal, and public works. The average increase in tax bills of the city residents will be about twice as great with wage tax increase than with a land tax increase. Herbert Simon, (1978)

William Jennings Bryan, (1860-1925)

Henry George was as guileless as a child, and as earnest as a martyr.

Benjamin Franklin, (1706-1790)

Our legislators are all landholders, and they are not yet persuaded that all taxes are finally paid by the land... therefore, we have been forced into the mode of indirect taxes. All the property that is necessary to a man for the conservation of the individual and the propagation of the species, is his natural right which none may justly deprive him of; but all property superfluous to such purposes is the property of the public.

Site Value Real Time Maps

By 1986 integrating Australia's highly acclaimed registers of Torrens Title ownership and each State's valuation lists, assessments of land tax, local rates and land rents can each be compiled and issued by computer with a speed and accuracy unknown only a few years ago making site Value contour maps available in real time.

President State Chamber of Commerce and Industry

The changes, which encouraged councils to switch from site value rating systems to the Capital Improved Value rating system was a form of capital gains tax on one’s house and business and its introduction should be opposed. The C.I.V. rating means in effect you will be taxed for making improvements to your house, for example painting it, building extensions, putting in a swimming pool and so on” he said. “It will discriminate against homeowners and business people who will have to pay more for making improvements to their properties or who may even be discouraged from doing so.” Michael Porter The Herald 28/10/1987

History of Site Value Rating

Site Value Rating was first raised in the 1901 Legislative Assembly by Arthur Robinson, the Member for Dundas, but frustrated by the Upper House opposition. Resurrected three times over the next twelve years, a bill giving municipalities the option of site value rating was finally passed in the Upper House in November, 1913, by a sixteen to six vote. A few extracts from the debate are worth quoting: Mr Hagelthorin, Minister for Public Works: “This proposal is widely supported by the A.N.A., the Chamber of Manufactures and the Rating Reform League.” William Angliss: "My firm will lose more than it will gain from this Bill, because it is compelled to keep vacant land on which to run stock; but I am voting for it in the interest of the people of Victoria.”

Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865)

As long as the land monopoly is maintained, the few can take possession of what Nature free of charge has granted to everyone, and usury will penetrate the whole society, and we will have banks, which instead of being servants for the exchange of goods will become powerful extorters.

Professor Mason Gaffney

George's blend of radicalism and conservatism can puzzle one, until it is seen as a reconciliation of the two. The system is internally consistent, but defies conventional stereotypes. New Palgrave Dictionary of Economic Thought 1987 ...I’m very suspicious of people who take that point of view, I think it’s a substitute for having constructive ideas themselves. ..The word panacea is a scare word, it is used to intimidate people who have a solution, I refuse to be intimated. To me the wonderful thing about Site Value Rating the way it reconciles a number of ideas that in other philosophies and in the dominant philosophy today are considered to be incompatible. For example we can have a progressive tax system and we can have free markets and we can have incentives at the same time, these are not only compatible these are essential to each other. If the government imposes a rate on land and the rent that land yields, that not only allows land to put to its best use as defined by the free market. It encourages it! It’s not only compatible with the free market. Its more compatible than any other system. Furthermore it allows the government to untax labour, it allows government to untax exchange. The things that are the essence of the free market in are untaxed. The effects of the rate is highly progressive because the ownership of land is extremely concentrated. So what more could you ask for? Here’s a revenue system which is at the one time progressive and at the same time favourable to incentives. Association For Good Government Interview 1987

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948):

There is enough for everybody's need, but not enough for their greed.

Bible: Leviticus XXVv23

The land shall not be sold forever; for the land is Mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me. Moses (1400 BC)

Henry Thomas Buckle, (1821-1862)

The landlords are perhaps the only large class whose interests are diametrically opposed to those of the people.

George Bernard Shaw, (1856-1950)

The greatest of evils and the worst of evils is poverty. I went quite casually one night into a hall in London, and I heard a man deliver a speech which changed the whole current of my life. That man was an American, Henry George. We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. Whether it is the man or the earth I own, the bird or its food, it is essentially the same thing. As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed. There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.

Patrick Edward Dove

"The Theory of Human Progression": The land is for the nation, and not for the aristocracy.

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

Social Contract: The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying, "This is mine", and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes, might not anyone have saved mankind by pulling up the stakes, filling in the ditch, and crying to his fellows, "Beware of listening to this imposter; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody."

Dr Sun Yat-Sen, (1866-1925)

The land tax as the only means of supporting the government is an infinitely just, reasonable, and equitably-distributed tax, and on it we will found our new system.

Pliny the Elder (23-79)

Land monopoly ruined Rome.

Thomas Carlyle, (1795-1881)

Properly speaking, the land belongs to these two: the almighty God and to all his children of men. (Past and Present)

Bible: Eccles. 5:9

The profit of the earth is for all.